Iran is Attacking U.S. Bases in Iraq Because We Let Them

I may be reading too much into these statements, but I’m getting a sense that General Ray Odierno, commander of the Multinational Forces in Iraq, is getting frustrated. Like General Petraeus before him, Odierno is becoming more and more vocal about the role Iran plays in attacking Coalition and Iraqi forces and mingling in Iraq overall.

Odierno has just said that Iran is training, funding and arming three radical Shiite groups in Iraq that are attacking U.S. bases: Ketaib Hezbollah, the League of the Righteous and the Promise Day Brigade, which is an element of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army that Iran backed to the fullest. As the article points out, the Hezbollah Brigades have carried out attacks on Iraqis as well. This isn’t just a fight against the U.S., it’s a fight against the democratic Iraqi government.

Odierno, perhaps out of a concern not to make a statement that forces President Obama to take action, says it is “very difficult” to know if this is an Iranian government effort. Yeah, right. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards are the government. They are the ones most loyal to the regime and the ones keeping it in power. If it wasn’t for the IRGC, the regime would have fallen last summer.

But why is Iran doing this? Because we let them and it works. Iran is ideologically-motivated and won’t ever stop trying to dominate the region and exporting extremism, but they are more calculating and pragmatic than Bin Laden. Their goals are unshakeable, but their methods are chosen based on what works.

The Iraqi government snapped last year and went into a fiery rage against Syria for supporting terrorism on their soil, openly lobbying for a U.N. tribunal to prosecute those in Syria involved and releasing evidence to prove their accusations. The result: Terrorism fell 75 percent. More recently, international attention was brought to the planned stoning of a woman accused of adultery in Iran. The result: Iran decided against stoning her, although her ultimate fate is unclear.

Remember: Iran and Syria are attacking our troops and targeting our interests because it works.